Govt settles row with TatasVSNL to go ahead with Rs1,200 cr investment in Tata TeleservicesNew Delhi, June 10
The 13-day controversy between the Centre and the Tata group over the controversial decision of VSNL to invest Rs 1,200 crore in Tata Teleservices ended on a positive with both sides agreeing to form a committee to consider strategic investments by VSNL.

Limited seizure powers for SEBINew Delhi, June 10The Law and the Finance Ministries today agreed to grant limited search
and seizure powers to SEBI in a bid to give teeth to the market regulator.
The final touches to the proposed amendments to the SEBI Act were given at a meeting presided over by Mr C.M.
Vasudev, Secretary (Economic Affairs), Ministry of Finance.

Hyderabad, June 10 India is well on its way to achieving the goal of taking the software industry turnover to $80 billion by 2008 despite a slowdown in the global tech industry, an Indian IT industry umbrella group said on Monday.

Union Bank goes public in JulyMumbai, June 10Union Bank of India today announced that it would come out with an initial public offer (IPO) in July this year to raise a sum of Rs 300 crore from public, to finance its major information technology (IT) initiative in core banking integration involving two Indian giants, Wipro Infotech and Infosys Technologies.

Maple Leaf to make pop-up cards for ITCKolkata, June 10ITC’s greeting card division has entered into a strategic alliance with
leading pop-up card manufacturer “Maple Leaf” to strengthen its greetings card business.
Maple Leaf will exclusively make pop-up cards for ITC as part of the terms of the alliance.

Milkfed hikes cow milk pricesChandigarh, June 10
To encourage cow milk production in the state, the Milkfed has decided to increase its rates by 60-65 paisa per litre from June 11. It will result in about Rs 10 crore additional income annually to milk producers, who are supplying about 1400 lakh
litres of cow milk annually, about 30 per cent of total procurement.

New Delhi, June 10
The 13-day controversy between the Centre and the Tata group over the controversial decision of VSNL to invest Rs 1,200 crore in Tata Teleservices ended on a positive with both sides agreeing to form a committee to consider strategic investments by VSNL.

The agreement follows a marathon nine-hour meeting between the government and officials of Tata ended today.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and VSNL agreed that the committee appointed by the VSNL Board would study and decide the quantum and the price at which investment would be made by VSNL in Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) at various points of time.

A joint
statement issued at the end of the meeting said that the two sides have reached the agreement following “cordial discussions’’ here today on the strategic investment to be made by VSNL in Tata Teleservices Ltd.

“The committee will also decide the tranches and periodicity of investment in TTSL,’’ the statement said.

The committee would include a government nominee Director, Mr Y S Bhave. It would complete its deliberations by August 15.

Both DoT and VSNL reiterated their commitment to working in a spirit of mutual understanding and accommodation to secure VSNL’s future.

Among those who attended the meeting included V Vaish of the Department of Telecom and Tata Industries Managing Director Kishore Chaukar.

Today’s decision follows several days of hectic consultation between the government, represented by the Department of Telecom, VSNL and top brass of the Tata group.

The decision was based on a letter drafted by Dr D.P.S. Seth, Member (services), Telecommunication Commission (DoT), to VSNL Managing Director Shailendra Gupta who replied that “ we are agreeable and will proceed to circulate the resolutions as per your suggestion.”

The letter said a government nominee director Y S Bhave will be on the Board of VSNL.

The committee will identify and quantify any additional investment opportunities which are more attractive and submit it to the Board for its consideration.

Sources in the Tata said that the decision of
VSNL to invest in TTSL will not be hampered and the decision of May 28 stands undiluted.

New Delhi, June 10
The Law and the Finance Ministries today agreed to grant limited search and seizure powers to SEBI in a bid to give teeth to the market regulator.

The final touches to the proposed amendments to the SEBI Act were given at a meeting presided over by Mr C.M. Vasudev, Secretary (Economic Affairs), Ministry of Finance. The meeting was attended by SEBI Chairman G.N. Bajpai, Company Affairs Secretary V.N. Dahl and other senior officials of the Finance Ministry.

Mr Vasudev told newspersons that search and seizure powers for SEBI will be limited for cases of insider trading and fraudulent market manipulation. There would be some safeguards so that SEBI does not misuse these powers.

For carrying out search and seizure powers, an order has to be passed by the SEBI Chairman and approved by a magistrate as is the case with the RBI and the Department of Company Affairs (DCA).

Mr Vasudev said SEBI will be able to impose penalties up to Rs 25 crores for serious offences. For smaller offences, SEBI will be able to inflict a penalty of up to Rs 1 crore.

Officials of the relevant departments will now prepare the draft legislation in the next few days, after which it will go to the Cabinet. The Amendment to the SEBI Act is be introduced in the Monsoon session, Mr Vasudev said.

At present search and seizure powers are provided only to agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The meeting of the secretaries comes after Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and Law minister Arun Jaitley ironed out differences among the ministeries on some vital issues on May 31.

The government was working on the SEBI Act ever since the Budget announcement by Mr Sinha.

The market regulator had sought extra powers to punish offenders who indulged in price rigging.

Regulators such as the Securities Exchange Commission of the USA have powers to impose penalties up to three times the value of the offence.

In India, the RBI can impose
penalties in certain cases of serious nature. UNI

Software turnover set to touch $80 bBy 2008 the industry will employ 4 million people: report

Hyderabad, June 10
India is well on its way to achieving the goal of taking the software industry turnover to $80 billion by 2008 despite a slowdown in the global tech industry, an Indian IT industry umbrella group said on Monday.

According to Nasscom, the software industry will log 34 per cent annual growth in the years ahead to touch $80 billion in turnover by 2008.

"We are not just optimistic but the target is realistic," Kiran Karnik, President of Nasscom, told a press conference on the first-day of the Indian IT and ITES (IT-Enabled Service) Strategy Summit 2002 here.

The two-day summit has been organised to focus on challenges and opportunities in the Indian IT and ITES industry.

Karnik, who unveiled the revised Nasscom-Mckinsey study 2002, said by 2008 the industry would employ 4 million people, account for 7 per cent of India's GDP and 30 per cent of India's foreign exchange inflows.

Last year was the only bad year when the industry registered a mere 29 per cent growth.

In the year that ended March 31, the Indian software and services industry clocked an export turnover of Rs.365 billion, a growth of 29 per cent over the previous year. During 2000-01, the industry logged 55 per cent growth in software exports.

Highlighting the salient features of the study, Karnik said: "Despite the challenges facing the sector, we are optimistic about the long-term potential of this industry. We believe four powerful forces will continue to drive it.

"For one, a large mass of potential customers is set to take off.

Furthermore, India has achieved the familiarity and experience with offshore services and this is dramatically increasing the breadth of service lines.

"Significant under-penetrated segments exist at both country and industry levels and there is pressure on global majors to move a significant portion of their work to India."

According to the study , the ITES sector is set to grow faster than the earlier projections given the increased interest in outsourcing by global companies.

The IT software and services industry has been segmented into four components — the IT services and exports sector, ITES exports, product and technology services and the domestic market.

IT services exports will touch $28 billion to $30 billion by 2008. The ITES segment will account for $21 billion to $24 billion, while the products and tech services industry will contribute around $8 billion to $10 billion to overall revenues.

The domestic software market will generate revenues of $13 billion to $15 billion, the study added.

The study also shows that the contribution of Indian software and the IT-enabled industry to the GDP will increase from 0.3 per cent in 1998-99 to 7 per cent in 2008.

IT software and services export revenues will account for more than 30 per cent of all foreign exchange inflows by 2008 from the figure of 8 per cent currently.

The IT industry will create over 2 million jobs by 2008 with software contributing to approximately 1.1 million and the ITES sector an additional 1 million jobs.

In addition, the parallel support services industry will create employment for another 2 million people.

The study report notes that over the last two years, the industry landscape has fundamentally changed in terms of customer purchasing behaviour, entry of global IT majors and increasing polarisation of player performance.

The study also advised the industry to focus on under penetrated geographies. "While established markets such as the USA and Britain have been tapped to a marginal extent (below 3 per cent), large non-English speaking markets in Japan and Western Europe remain under penetrated by Indian IT companies.

"These two markets alone offer the Indian industry over $5-6 billion in export potential. Indian companies also have great opportunities in English-speaking geographies like Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden and Australia.

"Together these markets account for 6.7 per cent of the world's IT spend and represent an opportunity of $1.2 billion by 2008."

On expanding opportunities in ITES, Karnik said the Indian ITES industry was expected to account for 37 per cent of the total IT software and services export market in India by 2008.
IANS

Mumbai, June 10
Union Bank of India today announced that it would come out with an initial public offer (IPO) in July this year to raise a sum of Rs 300 crore from public, to finance its major information technology (IT) initiative in core banking integration involving two Indian giants, Wipro Infotech and Infosys Technologies.

The IPO will be at cash for Rs 10 each per share at a premium of Rs 10 per share. The current capital adequacy ratio of the bank is in the region of 11.07 per cent which would have taken care of the bank’s capital requirements for the next year.

Disclosing this at a press conference, Union Bank CMD V.Leeladhar said the bank firmed up a three-year programme to implement core banking solution at 500 branches in 50 centres with a centralised database hub in Mumbai at an estimated outlay of Rs 150 crore and a major part of the expenditure would be met by the funds
raised through IPO. It would cover 60 per cent of the bank’s business volume.

The project is a part of recommendations made by consulting firm KPMG. The solutions to be integrated by Wipro include Infosys for its core banking solution “Finacle” and Internet banking product “Bankaway”, FSS of Chennai for ATM switch and B.K. Solution of Chennai for the telebanking systems.

Mr Leeladhar informed that the centralised core banking solution would later be extended to 1000 branches by the end of 2007 with the installation of around 200 ATMs.
UNI

Kolkata, June 10
ITC’s greeting card division has entered into a strategic alliance with leading pop-up card manufacturer “Maple Leaf” to strengthen its greetings card business.

Maple Leaf will exclusively make pop-up cards for ITC as part of the terms of the alliance.

ITC is expected to relaunch the pop-up cards under the “Expressions” brand later in the quarter, sources said.

“Manufacture of pop-up card entails intricate designing and requires specialised skills. The alliance will help leverage the manufacturing skills of Maple Leaf and help the marketing organisation of ITC to tap the latent demand for such cards in the country,” the sources said.

The move will help the company to leverage the respective strengths in distribution and technology and help the business to bring in the best available cards to consumers.

Pop-up cards occupy a niche segment in the overall card market with almost 5 per cent market share in the metros.
UNI

Chandigarh, June 10
To encourage cow milk production in the state, the Milkfed has decided to increase its rates by 60-65 paisa per litre from June 11. It will result in about Rs 10 crore additional income annually to milk producers, who are supplying about 1400 lakh
litres of cow milk annually, about 30 per cent of total procurement.

Welcoming the recommendations of the Disinvestment Commission to restructure the Milkfed and other public sector units in the state, the Punjab unit of the Bharti Kisan Union (BKU) has urged the state government to increase milk rates in Punjab.

Mr Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, President, said, ‘‘the Milkfed, had not increased the milk rates for the past many years. Though an increase of 60-65 paisa per litre of cow milk had been announced from June 11, but the fact is that more than 70 per cent of milk producers sell buffalo milk.’’

The cost of milk production had increased manifold due to increase in cost of animals, fodder, cattle feed and other inputs. However, due to the threat of imported milk, the milk rates had not been revised resulting in heavy losses to the farming community. In fact, the animal husbandry, which used to provide additional income to farmers, had become a money losing business. However, the over-staffed Milkfed has failed to check its expenses or to introduce any drastic change in marketing and distribution network.

New Delhi, June 10
Labour Minister Sharad Yadav will tomorrow lay the foundation stone of a computerised Sub-Accounts Office of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation at Noida.

It will bring modern PF and pensions facilities to the Employment Provident Fund beneficiaries almost at their doorstep in the industrial belt of Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad and Bulandshehar districts.

The Sub-Accounts Office at Noida has been catering to the needs of about one lakh beneficiaries at 1,088 establishments in Gautam Budh Nagar district only.

The setting up of its own building with modern and computerised operations will facilitate better delivery of services to the workers by the Sub-Accounts Office in three districts of western Uttar Pradesh.

ROUND-UP

HDFC announces sops for NRIs

DubaiNRI are to receive another sop in the shape of HDFC’s plans to increase its NRI portfolio to 10 per cent of its total loan disbursements from the present 3 per cent.

“We expect at least 10 per cent of our total business to come from the NRIs,” HDFC’s Executive Director R.V.S. Rao, who was here to inaugurate the agency’s new representative office here, said.

Mr Rao said his bank would offer special services to customers like zero balance facility and standing instructions for loan instalment remittances instead of using post-dated cheques.
UNI

BP engine oil for bikes on cards

Vijayawada
The UK-based multi-national company BP will introduce engine oil for motorcycles in the country by next month, company Brand Manager Nilesh Koul said today.

Mr Koul, who inaugurated a “BP Mela” here, a health programme for truck drivers implemented across the country, said BP aimed to capture a market share of Rs 150 crore in India in lubricants this year.
UNI

More Delta flights to India

Dubai
Delta Airlines will next week launch code-sharing services to India — offering business and leisure travellers 20 weekly flights to Delhi and Mumbai — in conjunction with Air France and Alitalia. The Gulf News today quoted a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance network as saying that the service will be launched on June 17, followed by the Delta/Alitalia agreement on July 1.

Delta plans to codeshare on Air France flights from Paris to Delhi and Mumbai and on Alitalia flights from Milan to Mumbai, Delta’s Director-Alliances Ben Darnell said.
UNI

KVIB honey plant in J & K soon

Srinagar
The Jammu and Kashmir Khadi and Village Industries Board (KVIB) will set up a modern honey processing plant costing Rs 2 crore at Baghi Ali Mardan Khan here to give a boost to bee-keeping trade in the state.

Industries and Commerce Minister Mustafa Kamaal, at a function at Khunmoh, 14 km from here, said the facility would enable bee-keepers to raise their remuneration threefold and provide facilities in agriculture marketing, bottling and labelling.
PTI

Carlson Park Plaza by 2004

New
Delhi
Carlson Hotels Worldwide today announced the launch of its recently acquired brand Park Plaza in the country, following an agreement with Bestec Group which will own the property to be opened by 2004.

The brandname Park Inn and Park Plaza hotels, acquired by Carlson Hotels in 2000, is being developed and marketed by Sarovor Park Plaza Hotels in the country.
PTI

Solar pump
Chandigarh, June 10
Punjab Recorders Ltd, SAS Nagar, a company of the Punjab State Electronics Corporation, has developed a solar pump for irrigation. It works on the photo-voltaic effect of electric energy generation, whereby the light energy in the sun rays helps to produce the desired flow of electric current in the connected circuit. A solar pump thus developed has been installed for field trials.
TNS

Ashok Leyland
Chandigarh, June 10
Hinduja group flagship Ashok Leyland’s manufacturing unit of Bhandara, Maharashtra, has won the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award 2002 of the World Environment Foundation. At the inaugural session of the fourth World Congress on Environment Management held at Palampur today, the Dalai Lama presented the award to J.N. Amrolia, Executive Director, Ashok Leyland.
TNS

Nepal flight
Patna, June 10
Necon Airlines will operate direct flights between Patna and Kathmandu from June 15. Jai Prakash Narain International Airport Director Chandan Sen said Patna had no air connectivity with any foreign country for a long time although it was called an international airport. The direct flight between Patna and Kathmandu was withdrawn for security reasons.
UNI

BHEL gets order
Hardwar, June 10
BHEL here has received an order of Rs 229 crore for the refurbishment of onshore drilling rigs from the ONGC. Under this order, BHEL will refurbish and upgrade the rigs and increase their
capacity. The project will be completed over a period of 18 months, according to BHEL sources.
UNI

Fashion week
New Delhi, June 10
The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), has planned to organise a week-long Lakme India Fashion Week 2002 here from August 2 this year. The event is aimed at providing a platform to develop opportunities for the Indian fashion industry professionals and will continue to focus on the ‘business of fashion’.
UNI

JP Systems
Hyderabad, June 10
JP Systems (India) Limited announced the receipt of government approval to formally change its name to JP Mobile (India) Limited. The name change is tied to business integration activities surrounding the company’s acquisition by USA-based JP Mobile, Inc.
UNI

Rice bran oil
Mumbai, June 10
The Solvent Exctractors’ Association (SEA) of India is organising the fifth national seminar on edible rice bran oil at Chandigarh on June 30. SEA Executive Director B.V. Mehta said the seminar would focus on the marketing aspect of rice bran oil, a heart-friendly cooking oil.
UNI